FREMONT - Aided by favorable weather conditions and a low water flow from the Sandusky River, workers have demolished more than half of the Ballville Dam since the start of July.

About 70 percent of the Ballville Dam's main section has been removed since July 2 as demolition activities continue.

Kenneth Frost, Fremont's safety service director, said Thursday that workers from MWH Constructors and The Great Lakes Construction were grinding the remaining segments of the main section down, with the Sandusky River finding its way around the demolition.

"The river is already cutting a path that the engineers predicted," Frost said.

He said the city is pleased with the progress made so far and the project's smooth process.

City Auditor Paul Grahl said the dam removal project's second phase has an estimated cost of $4.24 million.

That cost includes demolition, river restoration and allowances for the dam's chemical feed building.

The project's first phase involved the installation of an ice control structure, comprised of 15 pillars, downstream from the dam in the fall of 2016.

Grahl said there was $1.72 million available, before the start of the second phase, from the city's $2 million U.S. Fish and Wildlife grant for the project.

The city received the $2 million U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant to put toward dam removal.

Grahl said the grant is a reimbursement grant, with the city needing to show documentation that it has spent $2 million on the dam removal project before Sept. 30.

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The bulk of the Ballville Dam has been removed as of Wednesday, as work crews continued hauling away debris from the dam site. MWH Constructors and The Great Lakes Construction have been tearing down the main portion of the dam since July 2.(Photo: Daniel Carson/The News-Messenger)

Once U.S. Fish and Wildlife receives all the needed supporting documents and invoices, it will begin to reimburse the city for money spent on dam removal.

He said he will be returning to Fremont City Council at its first August meeting to seek approval for payment of a $928,000 invoice from MWH Constructors.

That MWH payment invoice would be sent to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which will then forward it to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Of that $928,000, $855,000 would be submitted to ODNR as project money spent through the grant.

"We want to continually draw that down," Grahl said of the $2 million grant.

Frost said seeding of wetlands areas along the river's embankments should be done in the next two to four weeks.

In October and November, MWH will oversee permanent seeding and tree and wetland planting upstream and at the dam site.

The city is required to convert 21 acres back to wetlands as part of the dam demolition project.

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The Ballville Dam removal project has been substantially completed, with crews continuing Wednesday on demolition at the Ballville Township site. Two of 15 pillars from the ice control structure, foreground, were installed in the first phase of the project in 2016.(Photo: Daniel Carson/The News-Messenger)

The Ballville Dam, approximately 400 feet long and 34 feet high, was built by the Fremont Power and Light Company in 1913.

MWH Constructors has set up a website with a camera showing the dam demolition. Real-time updates of the dam project are posted online on the City of Fremont's website, fremontohio.org.

Frost said the contractors will be taking down the seawall and chemical feed building next to the dam's main section in the coming weeks.

He said ODNR is monitoring the progress of the dam removal project and had not reported any issues with released sediment negatively impacting aquatic life or wetlands along the river.